Moments out of Time
by Awdures
Summary: Missing or AU snippets prompted by Sonic Generations. What did Knuckles make of the reappearance of Sky Sanctuary? Or anyone of the appearance of Crisis City? Why do Shadow and Silver pick fights for no good reason! And anything else that presses my fic buttons...
1. Lost Sanctuary

The colours were flooding back into the landscape but the relief on Knuckles' face had faded into shock as he stared around.

"Where..." His voice trailed away and he shook his head slowly and changed the question. "How?"

"I'm not sure," Sonic admitted. "That thing that grabbed you is grabbing places too. Places out of time."

"This is -"

"It's Sky Sanctuary. I know. That's the one of the reasons I'm thinking time travel!"

"It's gone." Knuckles sounded dazed and didn't seem to have heard Sonic's interruption. "This place is gone. I couldn't save it. It fell." He reached out a hand to one of the trailing vines, as though he expected to pass straight through it.

"Yeah, well, it's here right now." Sonic stepped closer, and put a hand on the echidna's shoulder. It was a mark of the depth of his shock that it wasn't immediately shrugged off.

"Knux? You okay with this?"

"No." The brutal honesty clashed with the faintness of his voice but after a moment he drew a deep, shaking breath and spoke more calmly. "No. Not really. But it is what is it." He looked round once more and sighed. "Let's just do what we have to do here and get back where we..." For a moment the haunted look was back on his face and he let his hand fall from the vine. "...belong."

Sonic tried a smile and stepped away to take another look around. "Yeah. So, the other Sonic - the younger me - Tails is with him. His Tails. Erm, younger Tails. Tails from then. D'you think we need to find the other you?"

Knuckles turned a bewildered expression on him. "How in all the skies can I know that? You think _I've_ got any idea what's going on?"

Sonic shrugged. "Just thinking out loud. But it can't hurt to have more help, right? Whatever's happening?"

Knuckles shook his head slowly. "I don't think I… he… would believe us."

Sonic quirked an eyebrow. "You wouldn't believe _yourself?_ ~

Knuckles looked up. The Death Egg rose slowly through the clouds. Briefly, Sonic wondered if there was yet a third one of himself here, chasing after it, or already aboard.

"After what's just happened?" Knuckles continued. "No. I'm not sure I would. And I…" He hesitated, eyes drawn upwards again. "I don't think I'd be much help."

Sonic frowned. "I know it's a shock but-"

Knuckles cut him off. "I mean me-then!. Me-now. Whichever." He looked up again at the rising Death Egg. "You can see when this is, Sonic. Look at it. The Master Emerald is there, not here." His eyes were still wide and shocked. "You've gone on after it, gone on ahead. I'm no use to anybody here and now!"

Sonic hesitated to argue further with Knuckles so obviously rattled by the situation but he still didn't know why people were being snatched away by the thing that had landed him here, he still hadn't worked out if the younger Sonic and Tails had been snatched here too. He didn't know what would happen to him or Tail or Knuckles or any of them if something happened to their younger selves. They couldn't _be_ here if they'd been wiped out years earlier could they? Did that mean they didn't need to worry? Or that they _should_ worry?

As if on cue his own younger self dashed up, looked between him and Knuckles, with, "What are we waiting for" written all over his face. Sonic glanced down at him.

"Okay, two hedgehogs for the price of one then. That makes it easier." He grinned. He pointed at the younger hedgehog. " _I'll_ go find out what's going on here."

With the same hand he'd pointed at the younger hedgehog he jerked his thumb towards himself instead, glancing at Knuckles to check he was keeping up. "W _e'll_ go see if you need any help. Or if we can persuade you to help us instead of punch me in the head. Again."

The younger hedgehog was still looking at Knuckles with unabashed curiosity but now sprang to a mock salute to his older self and pelted off again. Presumably that meant yes, he agreed with the plan. Sonic returned his attention to Knuckles.

"Make sense?"

Knuckles frowned, though it was slightly unclear whether it was in confusion or because he didn't like the idea. After a moment he sighed.

"I don't have any better options."

* * *

Knuckles led Sonic through the unstable structures with only half his attention on the route. It was easy to find the place. Familiar even after the gap of years. It hadn't changed after all. Had not had _time_ to change if what they were experiencing was really the past. Except how could it be? Sonic would have remembered meeting an older version of himself surely?

Not that he was exactly the right person to comment on what was and wasn't possible to forget. But this place and time he remembered. Mostly anyway and the gaps were the entirely explainable gaps of exhausted oblivion. He hadn't stirred from where he'd left Sonic to run on without him back then. Hadn't had either the strength or the inclination. He had simply let himself slide from his knees to his side and let go. He was there now, and Knuckles leapt lightly onto the platform and stopped, staring at the limp, red bundle of fur and spines curled loosely on the smooth stone.

He heard Sonic jump down a second behind him and had to fight back a ridiculous urge to try and obstruct the hedgehog's view. As Sonic didn't already know how thoroughly he'd been beaten.

Their approach had been noted and Knuckles watched himself stir, clawing for consciousness, eyes barely open, arms trembling as he pushed his way back to his knees. Any lingering doubts he may have had that this was their own past and it was real, evaporated as he watched. He remembered the desperation too well. It had been more humiliating to send Sonic on without him than it would have been to go with him and fail on the way, but he'd borne it - sent Sonic on, because that was the better chance - he couldn't have risked slowing the hedgehog down. Not just for the sake of his hurt pride.

But it _had_ hurt. Hurt worse than the injuries, the fight, the shock, the fall. Hurt second only to the gaping mental wound that was the separation of the Master Emerald. He could feel the echo of that separation - even over the reassuring sense of his own link with his own time's version of it which seemed unaffected by this displacement through time. But he could feel this time's Master Emerald too, faint and strange, but there and crying out in protest.

To his surprise he'd made it to his feet. It was more than he'd done in his own recollection but clearly unsustainable. He was shaking from head to toe, barely able to lift his head to look at them. Too spent to either question their presence or do anything about it.

"Woah… Knuckles…"

Sonic ran past him - _to_ him - catching the reeling echidna a moment before he'd have fallen, looping his arm around his shoulders, burbling inane reassurance.

"S'alright. I gotcha. Take it easy."

Knuckles looked away, involuntarily. Hadn't he been shamed enough in his original time? Did he have to watch this helpless display as well?

By the time he looked back, Sonic and his other self had ended up half-sitting half-kneeling on the stone, the echidna slumped against the hedgehog, not even struggling any more.

"It's okay," Sonic was saying. "It'll be okay." He smiled. "Betcha don't believe me, but, really, it comes out okay." He looked up. "Tell him."

Knuckles stared at Sonic's expectant face, his own dazed one. What did he want from him? He had no convincing lies to tell.

"Tell him what?" He had nothing to reassure with. "Tell him he failed completely but it's not going to matter? That you'll sort it out. That he'll live with it. That this zone is the only one that will be sacrificed for his mistakes?"

"Knuckles!" Sonic looked more dismayed by this than the echidna sprawled against him who seemed only intermittently aware of their words.

Before Knuckles could respond to Sonic, they were all thrown off balance by a violent tremor through the stone and the wild tilting of the segment beneath them which dropped away beneath them before stopping in the air and tipping giddily sideways. Knuckles was thrown off his feet, digging one clawed fist into the surface and in the same motion grabbing for Sonic who was skidding towards the edge trying to simultaneously regain his feet to run against the slope and keep a grip on the semi-conscious echidna whose uncoordinated struggles were not making the task any easier.

He missed the hedgehog's arm, got a handful of spines instead, grimacing as they gashed his hand but not loosening his grip.

Sonic yelped. "Oow ow ow ow ow! Let go!"

"No." Knuckles hung on grimly.

The platform tipped, tipped, almost to the vertical before swinging back, Knuckles gritted his teeth as it overshot and for a moment they were all dangling in the other direction before it steadied slightly, rocking wildly still, but not more than 30 degree or so. Manageable.

He let go. Sonic slumped for a second then finished getting back to his feet, carrying the now very definitely unconscious echidna with some difficulty.

"Err, thanks and all, Knux," he said "But no grabby spikes, yeah? That damn well hurt."

"Yes." Knuckles displayed his bloodied hand, palm out. "It did. I can assure you it was not my first choice."

"Oh." Sonic frowned. "Sorry. Thanks. You okay?"

Knuckles nodded. He could already feel the Master Emerald at work upon it. It wouldn't hinder him.

"It's fine. But we have to get down from here. This whole place is going to fall. Do _you_ know what'll happen if we're still in this time when it does?"

"Not a clue." Sonic grinned, almost as though it would be worth it to him to find out.

"What about him?" Knuckles pointed.

Sonic grin fell away. "We're not leaving him, if that's what you're asking."

Knuckles sighed.

"He survives, Sonic. _I_ survived."

But Sonic's face was fixed into a too familiar, stubborn scowl and they had no time.

"Fine." Knuckles gave in. "Give him to me."

Sonic hesitated.

"I'm not going to argue about it, Sonic. But I can carry him easier than you can and we need to _move_."

Knuckles took the limp echidna from Sonic's arms, fighting off an overwhelming sense of unreality.

He had no time to think about it thought because the moment the transfer was accomplished he was overwhelmed by another sensation. The warming, tingling energy that was the Master Emerald's response to its Guardian's injury. Except he was fine, mostly, his hand almost healed already, but everywhere red fur touched red fur the energy leaped and spread. He watched the body in his arms stiffen then relax, the pained, anxious frown which had been on his other self's face even in unconsciousness smooth to nothing.

"Knuckles, what are we waiting for? What are you doing?" Sonic was bouncing on the spot, clearly keen to be on the move.

Knuckles glanced up at Sonic. "It isn't me." He shook his head. "I mean… it's _is_ me… that's the point. It's the Master Emerald."

"Its healing him?"

"It was healing _me_ \- my hand. It doesn't seem to have realised that he's not me - it just carried on."

"He _is_ you," Sonic pointed out.

"That's what I meant."

"Uh… Okay… Confusing much?" Sonic rolled his eyes. "Can we just-"

He was interrupted by the newly-recovered echidna's eyes snapping open and his instant struggles. Knuckles tried to disentangle himself but hadn't managed it before getting a clout across the face.

He dropped himself abruptly, almost shoving him away to land with a thump on the stone where he leapt at once back to his feet keeping his balance on the shifting surface with ease. Knuckles stared at him, watching him try to assess what threat they posed, try to catch up with what was going on. Eyes full of suspicion.

He didn't look that much younger to his own eyes. Smaller, yes, but younger? No. There was almost none of the younger Sonic's childish bearing to him, none of the wide eyed optimism. He was only more ignorant, not more innocent.

"Don't you dare start with us," he warned him, because he did look ready to - outnumbered and confused or not. As he'd expected. Time travel on top of everything else would seem so implausible. But they didn't have time for his confusion or suspicion, not with the place falling down around them. Not if it meant he was going to stand in their way.

"Let me get you caught up." Knuckles snapped. "Sonic just went to get back the Master Emerald you lost." That got through to him. He saw the reaction in his eyes. Without waiting he jerked his hand at Sonic. "And this one just stopped me leaving you to fall with the ruins that loss is going to make of this zone. That was _my_ Master Emerald you just used to even be standing there awake and your idea of gratitude was to hit me in the face. So don't you _dare_ start with me!"

"I don't…" the smaller echidna began and the next words would have been 'believe you' and Knuckles had known it, had warned Sonic so but it was still too infuriating to hear and he darted forward, intending to either shake or smack some sense into himself.

Instead he found himself dashed sideways by Sonic who'd jumped between them.

"Lay off him!"

Knuckles stared incredulously at the hedgehog. "Lay off him? He's _me!_ " He dodged round Sonic. "And he's a fool."

"Yeah, well, " Sonic couldn't apparently restrain a smirk. "Some things never change. So give yourself a break" His face sobered. "Seriously, Knux, look at him. Don't you think he's been through enough for one day?"

"If he has, some of it was dished out by you, Sonic, so don't give me that," Knuckles snarled, but he did look. Watched himself staring between himself and Sonic, still trying to work which, if either was the threat. Saw his hand stray to the crisped, matted fur at his temples where the electrical burns that had shocked him from the stolen Emerald had perhaps not quite healed, saw the glimmer of barely controlled panic in his eyes at the empty sense where the Emerald should be and wasn't.

And there was something else as he stared back at him. Something that didn't have the unhappy familiarity of the rest of this.

"Who are you?" he asked suddenly. "You used the Master Emerald. You're a Guardian."

Hope. Hope was what that unfamiliar look was and Knuckles realised his other self hadn't caught any of the important detail of who he and Sonic were. Didn't know Knuckles was his own older self. Thought - or maybe that was too strong a word - _hoped_ that he was one of the lost echidnas returned. But returned just in time to see his almighty failure, and hope warred with shame in his face.

Knuckles shook his head, at a loss for where to start and they didn't have time for this!

"I'm sorry," the younger Guardian was saying. "I tried. I was wrong. It's my fault." He pointed at the sky. "It's out there, somewhere. The hedgehog says he'll try to get it back but…"

Sonic gave Knuckles a vigorous shove towards himself, accompanied by an urgent eyebrow-raised look.

"Tell him!"

And this time he looked at the despair in his own eyes and he did.

"Knuckles," said Knuckles. "Sonic will bring the Master Emerald back." _Bring_ it back, that was the important thing. _Getting_ it back from the Death Egg was one thing. Returning it to the Island another. He knew well enough what he'd feared. But it hadn't happened.

"You can trust him." Knuckles half expected a remark from over his shoulder at that but none came. His other self didn't look wholly convinced though so he went on. "I promise."

"How can you?"

Yeah, that was the sticking point sure enough. Knuckles frowned. How to be believed?

"Look at me," he said. "Look at him. That _is_ Sonic. I'm-"

He was staring now, that other him, but it was shock, not disbelief. "Me?"

Knuckles nodded. He didn't speak. Knew this was both reassurance and disappointment. The Master Emerald would be safe. But he was still the only Guardian.

Sonic spoke instead. "Yeah. Kinda weird time travel thing going on. So, you gonna come with us and find out what's going on?"

Both echidnas shook their heads, the smaller in denial, the other in understanding.

"I have to get back down to the Island. If the hedgehog - Sonic - makes it back with the Emerald in time I could still keep this place afloat."

Knuckles opened his mouth but stopped short of contradicting himself

Sonic smiled. "Good luck!"

"Don't you know what happens?"

Sonic shrugged. "Meh. Time travel. Who knows, right?" Without warning he bent down to pull the smaller echidna into a startled hug. "Take care. And don't listen to this grumpy git of a _you_ \- this wasn't your fault, okay? Just a mistake - we all make 'em."

The young Guardian frowned but nodded. Then he took a considering look at the edge of the platform and ran from it, launching neatly into a glide as he reached it.

"You realise he probably won't remember any of that, since I don't?" Knuckles said to Sonic's back.

Sonic shrugged and turned round. "So what? It needed saying. I'd say it again to you, now, if I thought you'd believe me."

Great chunks of the platform were falling away beneath their feet now, it was past time to be gone.

"Just run, Sonic." Knuckles took off ahead in demonstration, leaping to the next platform, retracing their steps to steadier platforms. Some of the familiar ways were already gone. Those that remained led up not down but they had no choice left.

And then with very little warning they were out. Back in the strange, suspended, pale between-worlds from where they'd found themselves stepping through to Sky Sanctuary.

"Knuckles?" Sonic said with the same wary concern as when they'd realised where they were.

Knuckles sighed. "I'm okay, Sonic."

"Sure?"

"Past is past." He hesitated, looking at Sonic's worried expression. "Including the mistakes."

Sonic smiled faintly. "You believe that?"

Knuckles made a face.

"I did just tell myself to believe you, hedgehog. Who am I to argue?"

- _ **END**_ -

 **This came out of two things - a kinda disappointment that we never do get to see little Knuckles in the game and the fact that Sky Sanctuary was an interesting choice for stage because it really is somewhere that could only be visited in the past, destroyed as it is at the end of S3 &K... And it seems like Knuckles must have missed it. In fact a picture came before the fic and can be found on DeviantArt under this same username Awdures and the title Lost Sanctuary - I'd link but y'know, FFnet and html links...**


	2. Could Have Been

In the still, white landscape, any colour or movement was eye-catching, even the dark fur and restless fidget that Sonic quickly identified as Shadow the Hedgehog.

Sonic approached warily, still bruised from his encounter with his metallic duplicate and what was Shadow doing here anywhere? Here and moving about - well, _staring_ about at the moment, but in any case not frozen, not motionless, colourless, lifeless.

Before he could ask the question, Shadow had asked the same one himself.

"What are you doing here, Sonic? What's going on?"

"Back atcha! You first."

Shadow ignored this, eyeing him suspiciously. "What have you done, Sonic? Is this your fault?"

Sonic rolled his eyes. "Yeah, sure, why not? I always go around time travelling and sucking the life out of the world when I'm bored y'know. Or not. _You're_ the one with the freaky chaos control weirdness - how come you're here and walking around when everyone else got trapped up in this time… whatever...?"

"I have no idea. There was a creature." Shadow surveyed him. "But it left you loose as well. So I could ask the same - why you?"

Sonic shrugged. "Maybe it doesn't like the taste of hedgehog."

Shadow glared at him, clearly in no mood for flippancy, if he ever was. His hands tightened into fists and Sonic noticed for the first time that he'd been passing a Chaos Emerald from hand to hand, restlessly, almost unthinkingly.

The only other Emeralds Sonic had seen here had been in the grasp of Metal Sonic and Robotnik. Was that coincidence? Were they, and Shadow running around free here because they'd had them when caught up in whatever this was? How many sides were there here? And which one was Shadow on?

Sonic considered it. Collecting at least some of the Emeralds had let him traverse one of the strange barriers that littered this place, there was a good chance he'd need more of them to deal with whatever had caused this. Persuading Shadow to relinquish his though, was likely to be all but impossible.

Not least because Shadow had already seen his eyes upon it and frowned, tucking it away out of sight amid his quills.

"You wanted something, Sonic?" The look on Shadow's face defied him to ask.

And well why not? Sonic smirked, what was there to lose? "Nothing much. Y'know. That Chaos Emerald would be a good start."

Shadow looked honestly taken aback at this direct approach but his eyes quickly narrowed again.

"You'd like me to just hand it over."

"Yep, that'd be awesome!" Sonic grinned, knowing doing so was reckless in the face of Shadow's never-too-distant temper and doing it anyway. It was almost certainly to end in a fight whether he did or not so there was no reason not to enjoy the sheer incredulity on the other hedgehog's face.

Almost to his disappointment, Shadow didn't take the bait.

"You think this is real time travel?" he asked instead.

The change of topic meant it was Sonic taken aback this time.

"Uh, looks like? I mean there's a whole other me running round here somewhere." Sonic waved his hand vaguely somewhere at chest height. "A little one. "

"Two of you," Shadow said flatly.

"Double the awesome!" Sonic grinned, ready to fire back at whatever inevitable retort Shadow had for that but the other hedgehog only frowned, thoughtfully.

"Time travel…" he murmured looking around at their surroundings.

The complete whiteness and flat light made it hard to pick out detail or depth, and Sonic stared as well, trying to place this particular piece of frozen time that had Shadow interested enough to overlook an opportunity to insult him.

"Shadow?" he asked cautiously. "What are you thinking?"

"None of your business, Sonic."

It pained Sonic to admit it but Shadow was _fast_ and before Sonic could quiz him further he had spun round and dashed into the portal. Sonic hesitated only a split second before going after him but it was enough for him to be out of sight.

Sonic automatically fell into a run, even as he glanced around trying to process where he was as the same time as looking for Shadow.

"The ARK?" Sonic made a face. "This can't be good."

What did Shadow intend to do here? Change something? When was this? _Could_ they change anything? Knuckles had seemed convinced they couldn't but Sonic was less sure. If someone had done this on purpose then there had to be a reason. What could it be other than changing something? It hadn't stopped him automatically trying to help that younger Knuckles, but now he couldn't help thinking of all ways that changing one thing could have knock on effects on others, and not for the better.

He was about to shout out for Shadow, in case he was still in earshot, when the need to do so vanished in a rush as the other hedgehog hurtled over and past him.

"Stay out of my business, Sonic," he warned in passing and then was racing away.

Sonic sped up to stay with him.

"What are you doing, Shadow?"

The only answer was further acceleration.

 _Fine_. Sonic could play at that too. He tore after Shadow, feet slapping the slick metal surface as he hurtled into a bend, skittering on the edge of losing traction for two or three steps - long enough to make the edge loom large in the corner of his vision.

He recovered and refocussed, looking ahead. Somewhere out in front, an unearthly purple glow was in sharp contrast to the dark sky and electric light. An energy core and Shadow was aiming straight for it, only heartbeats ahead. Rings flashed past and without breaking pace, almost on instinct, Sonic sidestepped into them and through them. For a moment he was running in a glittering blur of gold, feeling the energy pour into him, more refreshing than hours of rest, making movement instantly effortless. Sonic smiled. It was familiar by now that sensation, that energy, that effortlessness, he could use it, run with it. So he ran and for a moment almost forgot _why_ in the pleasure of the ring-boosted acceleration, the wild, liberating sense that air resistance itself had been conjured away. He was uncatchable, untouchable…

Right up until he collided with Shadow hard enough to send them both careening in opposite directions.

Still running, Sonic staggered wildly trying to regain momentum, but Shadow had been knocked forward instead of off his feet and Sonic realised at once that he'd miscalculated. The collision had thrown the other hedgehog closer than ever to the energy core and Shadow had reached out has snatched it from the air as though it was something solid and had leapt into the air.

Sonic slowed slightly as he looked up. Shadow looked furious, not triumphant and Sonic realised with a split second to spare what he intended.

"Chaos spear!"

Sonic flung himself to the side as the energy attack whipped by close enough to ruffle his quills.

"Shadow! Seriously? What! Why?"

But further attacks were already coming and Sonic was too busy dodging to press for further answers. He skipped sideways, jumped, ducked, more frustrated than in danger of actual damage because he simply could not get close enough to Shadow to tackle him.

But the moment it took Shadow to prepare each new attack was more than enough warning for Sonic to avoid it.

Stalemate.

And after a few more moment Shadow realised it as well, because he turned away and sped off ahead again.

Sonic was surer of his footing now, re-adapting to the ever-so-slightly-wrong gravity, and gaining ground once again. Looking keenly ahead for rings, for the glowing purple light that had put Shadow so firmly out of reach for those manic few seconds, for the inside line on the frequent bends, for any advantage.

Shadow was fast, but Sonic prided himself not _faster._ Just _fast_. So fast that any advantage of technique or terrain was enough to make him hard to catch.

And he had to catch him. He wanted something and Sonic didn't know what and that was reason enough to catch him. To stop him if he had to. There was enough confusion already without Shadow adding to it whatever obscure reasons he might have.

He was within arm's length of Shadow now, the energy core another length or two ahead of them both but Sonic wasn't going to make the same mistake twice and kept running. Shadow glanced over his shoulder before accelerating in the same moment as Sonic, guessing his reaction did the same. But in that moment of distraction Sonic had seen what Shadow hadn't - another line of rings and he swerved into them, tore ahead, leapt up to grab at the ball of light as Shadow had.

The energy wasn't like the boost he got from rings, or even like the wilder dazzling power of the Chaos Emeralds, but it rushed into him nonetheless, and the moment of giddy euphoria was similar. The sudden sense that however fast he was going he could go faster.

Below him Shadow shot past before Sonic's feet touched the ground again but the acceleration when they did was instant, the power dancing around him like a hot wind over his quills. He could have caught the other hedgehog instantly if the pair of them hadn't run straight into a litter of asteroids. Drawn perhaps by the artificial gravity of the station, they turned the way ahead into a minefield. Shadow swerved and skidded around them, while Sonic ploughed through them, certain somehow that even at this speed he'd do himself no harm while the purple energy swept around him. They shattered as he hit them, fragments hurtling off in all directions and Shadow staggered as some of the pieces ricocheted off his quills, knocking him off balance, eroding his lead.

Then they were through and Sonic cannoned into the other hedgehog. Shadow snarled in pain or anger as rings scattered around them and without warning the Chaos Emerald was back in his hand and Sonic had absolutely no desire to discover what he intended with it and leapt at him again.

Haste and the giddying extra power of the energy he'd absorbed marred his aim and he almost missed, catching Shadow hard under the muzzle and sending him back-flipping into the air only to crash down again hard enough to bounce almost his own height into the air before coming to rest, panting and flat on his face.

Sonic snatched the Chaos Emerald from the loose grip Shadow still had on it and hesitated. Shadow's fist closed on empty air and he looked up groggily, still breathing in huge winded gasps. Dazed eyes found Sonic and narrowed in a scowl.

Sonic stepped back slightly further out of range but in spite of scorched quills from the other hedgehog's attacks, couldn't quite walk away.

"So you want to explain _now_ what you're playing at?" he asked instead.

"No," Shadow muttered. "Give me that Emerald back. Before I have to take it from you."

"You're still after a fight? Seriously?" Sonic stared down at Shadow who had fought his way back to his knees and was reeling there, steadying himself his hands flat against the metal beneath them.

"And no." Sonic added. "I need it to fix this. Put time back where it should be."

"Time," Shadow sneered. "Do you even know what _time_ this is? Where we are? When?"

The gravity shifted underfoot, the planet below them looming large. It was a fair question. When _were_ they? This place had come dangerously close to falling in at least some of the possible 'when's.

Sonic looked around. "Uh actually no. Not really. The ARK. That's all I got."

Shadow straightened, though still on his knees, and looked up. "And you've no reason to care."

Sonic shook his head. "I don't know what…"

* * *

"Must be nice," Shadow cut Sonic off abruptly and glared at him, the confusion on the blue hedgehog's face only making him angrier, because it was crystal clear that Sonic really _didn't_ know.

He went on, "Yeah, that must be good. To have it not matter. To have time travel just be an inconvenience to _fix_ , to not have anything at all you'd change when the chance was dropped right into your hands."

Anger drove him from his knees. "Lucky you."

And now Sonic maybe did have an inkling because his face had fallen into a sympathetic expression and he'd reached out a hand as though he thought he could steady Shadow's unstable stagger back to his feet.

But he wanted Sonic's sympathy even less than he wanted his help and he caught his balance by an effort of will and thrust out his own arm instead, knocking Sonic's aside and turning his hand palm up.

"Give me back that Emerald."

He'd recover without it eventually of course. Traces of chaos energy flowed everywhere. At low background levels it was as common as fresh air, though in the absence of the Emeralds, about as substantial. He was the only one who could use it at those levels, could use it without rings to amplify it or Emeralds to direct it.

And that was because of what had been done here. It was what he'd been made for.

Sonic didn't know or care when exactly they were in the ARK's past - Shadow hadn't worked it out himself yet, but the plain truth was that _nothing_ good had ever come of him being here. Nothing but death and madness and betrayal had ever come from this place. There was almost no point during its history that it wouldn't have been better blown into a thousand pieces.

If he was far enough back could he change that? He barely dared think it. Even to consider the possibility was to invite pain. To invite back furious grief that would eat him alive all over again. And it was vanishingly unlikely wasn't it? The ARK had been drifting abandoned for half a century longer than it had ever been in actual use. The odds of him arriving before the GUN raid on the project which had ended with Maria's murder must be infinitesimal.

But he couldn't not try. And if he was, as seemed almost certainly the case, merely torturing himself with impossible maybes, then the least he could do would be to destroy the place and put an end to it, and for that he needed either the Emerald which Sonic had or hours yet of rest.

"Shadow..." Sonic trailed, a wary tone in his voice.

Shadow waited hand still out. He wasn't interested in anything Sonic had to say, but any delay was time for him to regather his strength.

Sonic sighed. "Look, maybe if we get inside the station the computers will tell us when we are. But I really don't know if we should meddle."

"Meddle," Shadow repeated, his contempt for such understatement making the word a snarl. "When do you do anything else but _meddle_ , Sonic?"

But the idea of using the computers wasn't in itself a bad one, and as long as Sonic had the Emerald, having him within reach could be useful.

"Fine," he snapped and spun on his heel, airjets hissing against the deck. "Nearest airlock is this way."

But they never reached it before the whole station lurched sideways, this time throwing both hedgehogs off their feet. A glow Shadow had barely noticed he was noticing had disappeared by the time he got back to his feet and Sonic was frowning around.

"Which way is the cannon from here, Shadow? I think I know when we are and it's not good."

"Then?" Shadow snapped his head round to stare at the planet. Was it getting closer? Were they falling? Flames had begun to flicker at the limits of the extruded atmosphere. Sonic was right. He knew when they were. They were falling towards the planet. No longer being _driven_ towards it - that lurch had been the echidna drawing off the power of the Chaos Emeralds powering their crash course, but they were still falling, and soon it would be worse than falling, soon, the biolizard would emerge, would try to drag the station down with it.

Soon _he'd_ fall.

Fall and lose what little recollection of who and what he was or could have been.

Again.

"Give me that Emerald, Sonic!"

He could save himself that. He could chaos control to the spot, bring himself safely back, change things.

Sonic was looking down at the Emerald in his hand, frowning. Considering it? But why in the hell was it Sonic's decision to make?

Shadow glared at him, weighing the odds of snatching it, concluding they weren't good, wondering whether to try anyway. What did he have to lose? Sonic started to speak but even as he began to form the word 'what' Shadow guess of the rest of the question and cut him off.

"What do you _think_ I want, Sonic? " he shouted it over the noise of the raging atmosphere, into the increasingly hot air, over the sound of creaking, overstressed metal. "You think I'm going to sit here and watch myself fall? Burn half to death?"

He stopped himself going on. The look of wary sympathy on Sonic's face stung too much without elaborating on anything beyond the physical consequences.

"We don't know if this is real time _travel_ ," Sonic said. "For all we know it's some weird loop, or..." he waved a hand. "Something. You might not be able to change anything."

Shadow shrugged. "Do you intend to stop me trying?"

Sonic's hand tightened on the Emerald but he was still staring at Shadow and Shadow had to stop himself looking away, evading that gaze full of unwelcome understanding, unwanted sympathy.

"I don't know," Sonic said. His voice was oddly quiet, but his grip was looser, his hand just slightly extended, and Shadow reached for the Emerald and the black sky turned white around them.

* * *

For a moment Sonic thought chaos control had taken the two of them away as Shadow's hand had closed over the top of his own, in the moment they'd both been holding the Emerald. A second later, as Shadow swore and spun away from him in frustrated fury, he realised they were back in the chill, between-time whiteness.

"No!" Shadow kicked out in a spasm of frustration and Sonic hopped aside, belated realising he, not Shadow, was still holding the Emerald.

"Shadow..." He wasn't sure what he meant to say. Sympathy for the other hedgehog who'd caused him so much trouble so many times was too new and strange to put words around it easily.

In any case Shadow only glared back at him.

"Forget it, Sonic! You were right. It wasn't real. A loop. A memory. Nothing."

He stared at the Emerald in Sonic's hand. "Take that." He gestured around them. "Fix _this_. But leave me the hell out of it. Once was enough. The past ought to damn well stay there!"

Sonic hesitated, but still had nothing to say and before he'd found anything, Shadow had turned his back. It didn't invite persevering, so Sonic just sighed.

"Yeah, let's just get this done."


	3. Unremembered

Sonic staggered, finding himself back in the white landscape. His fur and spines still smelled of smoke and soot which seemed oddly out of place here. Slowly, the colours faded back into the strange displaced city he'd just narrowly escaped. It didn't improve the look of it much. Ruins and flames and lava and fiery monsters.

What in the world was going on? If this was the past, as everything else seemed to suggest, then perhaps, after all, it wasn't _his_ past. He'd been to some pretty hair-raising places in his time but he was absolutely sure he'd never been there - and it wasn't exactly unmemorable.

Volcanos yep. Insane bases and ancient contraptions _powered_ by volcanos yep. Cities, yep any number of them. But cities in the literal process of being destroyed around him by a volcano right there and then? Nope. That was new.

He shook his head, returned his attention to the reviving figure of Blaze who blinked and looked around her.

"Crisis City…" she murmured.

Sonic glanced back. "Good name for it!"

Blaze didn't seem to have heard him. She looked dazed, more so than anyone else had seemed to be on their recovery. "I never thought I'd be back here… there…"

"Wait, you know it? It's from your world?"

"No…" Her face fell into a puzzled frown. "Maybe… I remember it but… I don't know…"

Sonic looked back. There was _something…_ He'd taken it for just the recognition of similar places, other cities, other flames, other volcanos, a whole parade of hazards he'd seen, to leave him with the odd, growing sense of deja vu. Was it something more than that?

"Is Silver here?"

Sonic snapped himself out of it at Blaze's sudden question. He was trying to remember a memory that wasn't there. Wasting time they might not have.

"Silver?" He looked curiously at Blaze. "You think this is something to do with Silver?"

Blaze's frown deepened. "I don't know why I said that."

Sonic shrugged. "Well time travel, all that stuff. Maybe. I haven't seen him though."

In the absence of better ideas, looking for Silver even on the off chance he had some clue seemed as good a plan and any but looking for white fur against the white landscape was not a task that leant itself to a fast search. It was the cyan glow that eventually drew Sonic's eye. Silver was hovering, examining a colourless platform above him, a frown on his face, and a Chaos Emerald just visible in one hand.

Like Shadow, he had apparently escaped the same frozen fate as the others when attacked by the creature and was up and moving. For a moment Sonic wondered if his flippant remark to Shadow about the thing not liking the taste of hedgehog was truer than he'd thought.

"Silver!" Sonic called and he spun round, rapidly concealing the Emerald and raising his hands to attack but then hesitating.

"Sonic?" He didn't lower his hands. " _Are_ you the real Sonic?"

Sonic grimaced. "Well, I'm _a_ Sonic. Right now you've got a choice of at least two."

This was clearly not the answer Silver had been looking for and his face slid from suspicion to outright anger.

"Don't play games with me, Sonic."

"I'm actually not." Sonic made a face. Trying to get the conversation back on track, he waved around at their surroundings. "You know this place?"

Silver touched back down and put a head to his head. "I remember it."

"That's what Blaze said. But neither of you seem very certain."

Silver's attention snapped back to Sonic's face. "Blaze is here? Is she all right?"

"Yeah." Sonic tipped his head curiously. "You know each other?"

"We… did?" Silver's face was a mask of confusion. "Here…?"

"You asking me or telling me?"

* * *

Silver shook his head at Sonic's only half-joking query.

"I don't know. Something's wrong."

Sonic almost laughed despite their situation.

"More wrong than being snatched out of time and space by a huge creature sucking the life out of everything you mean?"

Silver put both hands to his temples and squeezed hard. Something was far more wrong than Sonic knew. If it was Sonic. A Sonic _he_ knew.

He looked back at the frozen city. Flames frozen into white immobility.

Flames.

Flames and destruction.

"Yeah, lots." Sonic commented. Silver hadn't realised he'd spoken aloud. He frowned.

Flames and destruction and Sonic. _A_ Sonic. Somehow, they were linked. He'd known this place. He could picture random streets, patterns amid the confusion, safe routes. _Comparatively_ safe. Places to shelter. He'd never seen it before but he knew them. And the destruction had something to do with Sonic. He almost remembered it. He'd been told so. But the memory wouldn't coalesce - it was missing pieces. Someone had warned him about Sonic, but who that had been was missing. Blaze had been with him and her presence so familiar that it had been pure instinct to ask after her safety when Sonic mentioned her but _why_ she was there was missing.

He remembered those same places, those same spots in the city as leafy streets, broad avenues under blue skies. Remembered meeting Blaze for the first time here in Sonic's time, not there in his own.

Conflicting memories crashed against each other scattering his thoughts and attention.

He tried to ignore it, to focus on the here and now. It was a hazard of time travel. He knew that. He could ignore it. Just one of those consequences. You changed things and one of the things that changed was you. You couldn't stand apart, outside. You changed things and you couldn't retain what you'd changed but sometimes memory snarled and tangled around the pivot point.

Sometimes you remembered snatches of what you'd lost.

Because _something_ was always lost. 'Better' never meant _everything_ was better. You sacrificed one thing over another and half the time you most never what it was that you lost on the way.

But it had never been this strong. Never this overwhelming. The untethered memories were never more than dreams and deja vu and occasional goose-over-your-grave shivers of unease - not this headache-inducing, dizzying confusion of contradictory recollections.

"Silver!" Sonic snapped his fingers under his nose. "Any ideas?"

"The time that was taken - brought here - was the wrong time." Silver continued his train of thought without being completely sure whether he was talking to Sonic or himself. "Something was changed. But the change wasn't... taken? Brought? Can that happen?"

"Uh, still not getting whether that's actually a question."

Silver stared at Sonic who looked confused but far too composed for what was all around them.

"I changed something," Silver said. "Or you did. You…"

"I what?" Sonic spread his hands in what looked like honest confusion, but if this was a different Sonic then even if it had been some version of him responsible for the state of the city then he wouldn't know anything about it here and now.

It was too much to keep straight and Silver leapt up and around in one motion, borne off his feet and into the air by pure frustration.

"Go away, Sonic."

Silver turned to see Sonic's reaction and the other hedgehog did look genuinely regretful but shook his head nonetheless.

"Sorry, buddy. No can do. I realise I kinda shoulda asked this before ticking you off - even though I've got honestly no clue how I did that - but I need the Chaos Emeralds. You've got one, right?"

Confusion and frustration was washed out by instant suspicion which arrived on another wave of memory.

Because he had fought Sonic. Really _fought_ him, not just raced him or challenged him or scuffled over the best way to defeat something worse. But really fought outright. Fought to kill.

Had he been capable of that? Had he actually done so? Some other him? Some other Sonic? And if he _had_ been then _was_ he? Now? This him?

What would he kill for?

Not for a single Chaos Emerald, he was confident of that. He needed it to get home, but Chaos Emeralds were always to be found - they attracted trouble, they were hard to keep hold of - but the side effect was that somewhere there would almost always be one that had been lost and could, therefore, be found.

So no, not for an Emerald.

For a single other life then? What had happened to cut Blaze so completely from his recollections? From his life? Had he chosen that? Had that been the trade to keep the city he remembered as home lying serene under blue skies instead of clouds of ash and smoke? Her life? Or Sonic's? Or both?

"Silver?"

Sonic was staring at him, impatience now growing on the blue hedgehog's face.

"Blue hedgehog…" Silver was barely aware of his own murmur.

"Oh, you noticed." Sonic rolled his eyes. "Did you have a point?"

Silver frowned in furious concentration but no sense came, the pieces wouldn't come together.

"You… did this?"

Sonic looked around. " _This?"_ He waved at the white landscape then pointed to the ruined city. "Or _that_? Either way I've never been here or there before. No clue."

"I don't trust you."

"Yeah." Sonic seemed strangely unperturbed by this. "That's basically the kind of day I'm having. Everyone either thinks this is my fault, or is wandering around like they've been bashed over the head, or both. Gotta be honest, I'm about done with it."

The casual tone dropped out of his voice.

"So are you going to give me that Emerald so I can try and fix it, or are we going to have to go through the whole 'harass Sonic 'til he kicks your butt' routine all over again?"

"I have to know what's going on." Silver looked back at the frozen flames ridden ruins again. Was the answer there? He glanced back at Sonic who was shaking his head.

"Naa, come on, Silver - you don't want to go back in there. Take it from me. It's really not a vacation spot."

Anger penetrated the confusion. Sonic found the destruction around them something to joke about? Silver spun in the air and flew for the city. He would find his own answers. Sonic could do as he pleased.

It didn't really come as a surprise that what Sonic actually did was follow him. Not really. The speed of it did though. Sonic hadn't lost even a second on him and it was completely without thinking, in sheer reflex that Silver snatched at the derelict cars scattered around and flung them, more in an attempt to at least slow Sonic down than with any real hope of shaking him off.

It was another complete surprise to find two of them and then Sonic himself hurtling back at him. They collided in mid-air and Silver gasped as he was knocked tail over tip, shock and dizziness making him lose his grip on the energy that kept both him and his makeshift weapons aloft.

He landed badly, skidding and tumbling and scrambling to regain his feet and then the air, in the split second before Sonic would be on him.

"Silver!" Sonic didn't even seem out of breath, had barely missed a stride when he landed. "Listen!"

Silver shook his head, launched himself with a ragged jump back into the air and hoisted thee more cars into the air. Below him, and then, Sonic raced along, looking up appraisingly, making no attempt to get out from underneath. Did he really think he could move away in the time it would take for them to fall?

Silver hesitated. If Sonic was wrong - if he wasn't fast enough - he'd be crushed. Silver stared down. He'd know for certain then - whether or not he was a killer. He almost lost his grip accidentally at the thought, hesitated, caught them again and then in frustrated anger let go altogether. Let it be literally out of his hands if Sonic survived.

But the delay was enough, Sonic dodged and Silver found he was relieved although he did want out of this fight, did want whatever peace and quiet was to be found in this wasteland to work out what was going on.

Sonic could run faster than he could fly, but Silver was equal to that - he could skip ahead, tiny chaos controlled jumps to regain his lead. He wished he could jump completely away, far enough away to explore alone without interruption, but in spite of the eerie familiarity he didn't know this place well enough. He didn't dare teleport further than his line of sight could take him. He had no interest in knowing what would happen to him if a jump took him somewhere which was clear ground in his own memory and debris-filled in this reality around him. The mental image was unpleasant - more than sufficient incentive not to find out.

Instead he grabbed everything he could reach, rammed it together as a barrier, shoved it behind him to block Sonic's way with a hurtling barrier of mangled steel. If he could lose him for long enough to get enough a lead, to be out of sight to find another route then this could end with neither of them hurt.

He risked a glance back as he sped ahead only to find Sonic running across the top of the makeshift skidding barricade. How he was maintaining traction or balance was a mystery and Silver knew a moment of complete frustration - what would he take to stop him? Before he could decide on a new course of action Sonic was leaping at him again, tackling him in the air and knocking him to the unforgiving road surface once again. The back of his head hit the broken tarmac and his momentum carried him right over backwards. He reeled dizzily to his feet and lashed out blindly, scattering sharp bursts of energy almost at random to buy him time to gather himself back together and teleport back out of reach.

Sonic was still close behind but now for the first time he looked a little bit alarmed himself. The road sloped steeply here, whether naturally or because of the shifting earth where the lava rose and flowed. The tangle of debris Silver had slammed together was rolling now, gathering speed and momentum and there was no way off the road here that wouldn't result in a fall straight down to that lava. Sonic had to either go through him or be crushed by it, he wouldn't get atop this one.

Silver was flying backwards now, watching, determined not to be taken by surprise again, debris and half-wrecked vehicles held in the air around him, ready to be thrust between himself and Sonic when the inevitable attack came. But his own eyes were drawn behind Sonic, to that looming advancing danger he'd created himself and yet he still didn't know if he was certain enough to go on watching - let Sonic be killed, actively bring it about.

He had been once. Not here, but somewhere? He'd tried before. Had it been some other Sonic? He had a dim sense, newly felt, that he hadn't succeeded. Or had stopped. He didn't know why.

He was exhausted, sore, confused and distracted and this time when Sonic leapt he didn't even have time to begin to react. He hit the ground flat on his back, all the breath knocked out of him and heard the other hedgehog land and pound past him.

His wavering vision was filled with the oncoming hazard and he heard Sonic yell his name and thought against all reason that it was a warning, but not even Sonic could double-back on himself quickly enough to actually help and Silver himself didn't have the strength left to stop it and so it was going to be him not Sonic that went under it to die.

He tried anyway, instinct or stubbornness or hope, driving him still and he threw all the power that remained at the thing. He couldn't lift it again, not even close but if he could even just lighten it, take some of the weight…

He turned his head, pressed his face against the hard ground, and closed his eyes, waiting to see if he'd done enough. There was pressure and pain and darkness and all the breath was pounded out of him for a second time. It hadn't been enough and he was going to die here, out of time in every sense.

And then he wasn't. There was light against his eyelids and a breath he hadn't known he was trying to take dragged air back into his lungs in a wild painful gasp.

"Silver!"

He forced his eyes open at the familiar voice. Except - it was Sonic, wasn't it? He'd been fighting Sonic. Hadn't he?

"Silver," The voice said again and it _was_ the blue hedgehog, leaning over him. "You want to explain _yet_ what's going on with you? I mean, I'm not sure which one of us you were trying to flatten with that stunt but either way it's not getting us any closer to solving this thing!"

Silver closed his eyes again, the light painfully bright. A split second later he opened them again. Light. Bright, flat white light. They weren't in the city any more.

He rolled over and struggled back to his feet, looking around.

"What in the world is going on here?"

Sonic shrugged. "We're kinda still working that out. But if you're done blaming me for it, you wanna help?"

Silver surveyed the blue hedgehog wondering if it was really that easy for him. Fight over - move on?

* * *

Silver was looking at him strangely and for a moment Sonic thought that maybe he'd decide that he _wasn't_ done fighting after all. The moment passed and Silver nodded slowly. He held his Chaos Emerald briefly turning it over in his hands, then extended it to Sonic, on the flat of his palm.

"Cheers," Sonic said. "So. I don't suppose _you've_ got any ideas? How did you get here?"

"There was a… thing… a creature. A void. It was… almost… familiar."

"Yeah? Tails reckons it's sort of eating time. I know it sounds crazy. But something weird with time for certain - there's another Sonic running round here - me from _years_ back."

"A younger you? That's what you meant about a choice of two?"

"Yeah. Why?"

"And you're sure? He's a _younger_ you, not a you from another dimension or an alternative timeline."

Sonic blinked at Silver. "Uh. How would I know? He's younger than me. Anyone can see that. As for the rest…" He shrugged. "Does it matter?"

Silver frowned. "I don't know. I remember this city two different ways, Sonic. In flames like that and as a tranquil peaceful city. "

Sonic wasn't quite sure what the relevance of that was. "You mean you remember whatever it was that happened happening?"

"No. It had always been like that, my whole life."

Sonic frowned, still not sure he was following. "Like which?"

"Both."

Sonic stared at him. Silver looked distraught but the problem was so obscure Sonic had no idea where to start to solve it.

"Okay. So someone changed something in the past of this place and you remember both," he waved his hand, "Call 'em _versions_?"

"Yes." Silver nodded. "But that's not how it works. Not normally."

Sonic shrugged. "So that got screwed up too. So maybe it'll go back to normal when I kick that monster's butt and fix this."

Silver looked around. "Perhaps."

He gave himself a shake and when he spoke again he his voice was more determined.

"There's always a way."

Sonic grinned.

"Right!"


End file.
